600: EXPO Chicago

CATALOGUE
PRESS RELEASE

LatchKey gallery is excited to announce our participation at ExpoChicago, April 11- 14, 2024. On view in the EXPOSURE section, booth 419 will be new works by artists Brianna Bass, and Luis Sahagún. 

Bass and Sahagún share a vision of exploring catholic intersection with opposing themes, and through their collaborative presentation, they craft an immersive space inviting viewers to deeply contemplate the complexities inherent in this dynamic. Their fusion of artistic expressions challenges conventional narratives surrounding spirituality by bridging apparent divides, such as the natural versus the cultural, and the real versus the interpretive.

Born in Mexico and raised in Chicago, Luis Sahagún is a mixed media artist focused on the effects Catholicism, often intertwined with colonization, has influenced various aspects of societies and cultures. Sahagún incorporates traditions of Curanderismo, a traditional healing practice that originates from the blending of indigenous healing traditions with Catholicism during the period of European colonization in Latin America. A former construction worker, Sahagún combines building materials such as lumber and concrete with regal portraits of family members and members of his community in royal attire of the 14th and 15th centuries, around the time catholic colonization and influence began. The paintings, like much of Sahagún’s work, are characterized by texture. Constellations of family photos, beads and pearls, shells and clay contradict the flat westernized portrayals. These blending of styles and personal narrative break through the perception of separation, placing the artist and audience within stories of forceful bending of culture. 

Brianna Bass’s methodic and mathematical paintings aim for a similar reworking of religious influence— through reinterpretation of stained-glass windows. Influenced by a recent residency at NOH-ARTS in Naples, Italy, Bass uses geometric shapes to play with perspective and create window-like representations in a modern, minimalist way, allowing the viewer to reflect, similar to the goal of religious spaces, while intersecting with the mathematical realism present in her work. The intersection of the window, and shifting color in light and shade reflect back into the viewer, instilling a feeling of being outside of reality, while the symmetry reflects the natural and real world, breaking the awe that is marketable with these social structures into what real looks like.

This complex and reflective space presents breaking and ever-changing perspectives, reorienting the traditional space and intent of art. The fair will be open April 11th-14th, 2024, 11:00am to 6:00pm. We encourage you to come and interact with the work, and the artists who create them.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Brianna Bass’s compositions are a visual dance for the eye, a dynamic interplay of gradient colors and numerical formulas, used in conjunction with the color wheel to create illusions of movement and expanding space. Her paintings explore the limits of color theory, utilizing colors as codifiable units within an image to forge a relationship between optical and linguistic realms. Brianna's constantly evolving visual games invite viewers to hover at the boundary between art and science, showcasing the beauty and complexity of natural patterns. In contrast to the flatness common in geometric painting, she relies on shadows, warbling edges, and visual noise to interrupt and expand perception, creating an environment wherein the observer can forge a synesthetic experience.

Brianna Bass ( B. 1990) earned her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2022, and BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2013. She has presented in lectures with Missouri State University, Pratt Institute, and Yale University. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery (NY), Latchkey Gallery (NY), The Green Family Foundation (TX), Noh-Art in Naples, Italy, and Tree Art Museum in Beijing, China. Private and public collections include, Morgan Stanley Art Collection and The Green Family Collection.

Luis A. Sahagún (B. 1982) Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, he creates paintings, performances, and sculptures that confront the palpable inescapability of race, transforming them into acts of cultural reclamation. Like DNA strings of mestizaje, his practice sits at the intersections of contradictions — indian/conqueror, violence/unity, and ancient/contemporary. As the grandson of a Curandera and a practitioner of Curanderismo, Luis makes art that conjures indigenous spiritualities to embody personal histories, cultural resistance, and colonial disruption. As a formerly undocumented immigrant and laborer, Luis reveals the aesthetics of relocation and transgenerational trauma by utilizing building materials such as silicone, lumber, drywall, concrete, and hardware - symbols representing working class immigrants.

Luis has exhibited widely at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art (Roswell, NM), Latchkey Gallery NYC, Charlie James Gallery (Los Angeles), Arvika Art Gallery (Sweden), The National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), and the Chicago Cultural Center, among others. His work has been examined in publications including Artforum, the Los Angeles Times, Newcity, New American Paintings, and the Chicago Tribune. His practice has been spotlighted as having a unique voice helping to shape, shift, and touch the world on radio, podcasts, and television networks such as MundoFOX, NBC, UNIVISION and WBEZ-NPR. Sahagun has held residencies at Roswell, NM; Oaxaca, Mexico; the Chicago Artist Coalition; Mana Contemporary in Miami; The Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (Montalvo), Saratoga, CA; and was an Artist in Residence for Critical Race Studies at Michigan State University. His work is included in the Fidelity Collection of Boston, Alta Med Collection of Los Angeles, and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, among others. Sahagun received his undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and his MFA from Northern Illinois University. He is a 3Arts awardee and a 2023 United States Artist Fellow.